360 Warranty Expand & Charges Reimbursed

Microsoft has today announced that it will expand its Xbox 360 warranty coverage worldwide. They have revealed that any Xbox 360 customer who experiences a general hardware failure indicated by three flashing red lights will now be covered by a three year warranty from date the purchased the console. Interestingly, they also announced that any customer who has previously paid for repair expenses related to the three flashing lights error message will be retroactively reimbursed.

The company have spoken out to say they believe the amount repairs to Xbox 360 consoles was unacceptable so they conducted extensive investigations into potential sources of general hardware failures. Having identified a number of factors which caused general hardware failures indicated by three red flashing lights on the console, Microsoft announced they are, and will be, making improvements to the console. This update to warranty and other fixes to the machine will reportedly cost Microsoft $1.05 billion to $1.15 billion pre-tax charge to earnings for the quarter ending June 30, 2007.

“The majority of Xbox 360 owners are having a great experience with their console and have from day one. But, this problem has caused frustration for some of our customers and for that, we sincerely apologize,” said Robbie Bach, president of Microsoft’s Entertainment & Devices Division. “We value our community tremendously and look at this as an investment in our customer base. We look forward to great things to come.”